Today’s mass media is filled with news of terrorist ISIS murders in Tehran, Manchester and London. It too busy “covering” the fake news of “Comrade” Trump’s involvement with Russia (while Putin laughs it all up). But the key event at the center of much of what’s really critical to world events is the growing civil war in the Islamic world. Israel is in the geographic population center of this conflict and as usual, finds itself adapting to change. In 1948 a new nation, embargoed from receiving modern arms, used its people’s innovative and creative abilities to invent, adapt and “liberate” weapons to defend itself. Today’s “Start-up Nation” is a leader in technology, agriculture and so many fields of study that it is almost impossible to keep up with the progress.

From 2008-2016 Israel was denounced and betrayed by “friends” as were many of the Arab states. The “Arab Spring” saw America working to overthrow friendly governments in favor of those which quickly turned hostile. Israel now looks warily at its former “friends” and is learning from King David, who next to Joshua, was the most successful military leader in the nation’s early years.

Israel is often referred to as David versus Goliath

Over the years, especially after the Yom Kippur War, Israel’s closest call to date, the Saudi’s, Egyptians, Jordanians and other Gulf States have grudgingly accepted the fact that Israel isn’t going away. Arabs respect many things that Westernizers now disregard in their cultures, American and European. Western governments repeatedly place their concepts on Middle Eastern policy that the in nations region regard as foreign. In Middle Eastern and Muslim worldviews loyalty to a word given, a promise made and the family/clan and tribe are the governing factors in life. Muslims are Muslims 24/7/365. It is a full commitment of self and total submission. The pluralistic West has relegated faith to a “belief system” status. Religious faith is mostly an hour or so once a week that is kept personal, not discussed in business, at work or even in public for risk of “offending” someone. Ridicule and even punishment are at risk for those who live their beliefs 24/7/365. So much for Western freedom and progress. The result has been personal isolation, confusion and a growth in Islam which offers absolutism, sense of belonging and to many in the violent sects, a sense of power and domination.

David during the time he led his “Mighty Ones” as a guerrilla eider, found himself pursued by his king, Saul. David then played the guerilla’s waiting game. David and 600 of his men, their families included, went into the territory of the Philistines. They knew him well; he asked for land to live upon and was granted a city. He began raids on neighboring peoples and enemies of the Philistines and earned his keep and their respect. He was considered a useful tool against Saul and his raids produced goods as well. David worked as a mercenary for over a year and a half. The Philistines recognized his value to them in spite of his recent campaigns against them.

Today Israel sits in the middle of an increasingly violent civil war set among the Sunni (and Salafi) sects who are 90 % of the Islamic believers and the Shia Ayatollahs and their proxies in Tehran. ISIS is the most violent of the Sunni and makes even the strict Salafi (The Saudis reject the term Wahhabi) pale in compassion. Saudi Arabia is known for its strict and brutal administration of Sharia but this is in the judicial system. ISIS expands Sharia as an act of domination and intimidation against non-adherents and infidels.

Quiet and behind the scenes (back channel) cooperation among an increasingly expanding number of Arab nations and Israel has resulted in a pragmatic acceptance of Israel in the resistance to Iran’s aggressive expansion (and nuclear weapons development in partnership with North Korea). The common enemy has moved former enemies together. Israel has used the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” dictum very well. Until Western nations try to stop enforcing their concepts and worldview on a region that has existed in its basic society for millennia, Israel is working its survival very well.

But the absolute reality is that Israel is the only nation on earth that has had its survival guaranteed in writing. God has no covenant with any other nation. Somehow, some way, The Land will survive and thrive until its Messiah returns to the place from which He left, the Mount of Olives. He said it; we believe it and we are waiting.

France and much of Europe are feeling the weight of terror attacks. Emerging from the shadows, killers take as many innocent lives as possible before detonating their explosive vests. The world shares its shock and Facebook comments. News media focus each broadcast on who was involved and how the French are reacting. Yet, five innocents were killed in Israel and this hardly rates a back page or second or two. Why?

Paris Attacker Mastermind

The media still seems set against Israel. Slanted reports, video and any attempt to try to set the record straight seem absent. Perhaps Scripture can clear this up once and for all. “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.’ Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: ‘As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”(Genesis 17:1-6). This covenant is eternal. No one but The Almighty has any control over it. No matter what Kings of the North, Gog and Magog, or any earthly power do, Israel will endure. To stand with Israel is to stand with God.

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We are at war. We will be persecuted because of who we are and what we believe. The enemy hates us, our friends in Israel and above all, our God. There is no neutral ground or treaty to protect us. Only a continued faith and hope in the promises made by The Almighty can save us. Trial and tribulations are here but we were promised rescue if we persist.

Israel stands in faith and covenant and in the resolve to resist the enemies who seek to destroy the land and its people. We are bound to love our enemies, true. But making an enemy a friend means expecting him to cease working for our death and destruction and cease making war against us. Israel’s example of resolve, determination and faith practiced consistently are lessons for a world under attack from merciless foes.

Iran’s Lebanese proxy, Hizballah, used five anti-tank rockets and roadside bombs for an ambush Wednesday, Jan. 28, outside Kafr Ghajar, which killed two IDF servicemen. Maj. Yohai Klangel, 25, from Har Gilo on the West Bank and Staff Sgt. Dor Nini, 20, from Moshav Shtulim. They were traveling in unarmored vehicles DEBKAfile’s military sources report. Another seven soldiers were injured.

Hizballah and Iran, who had vowed to avenge the air strike which killed an Iranian Revolutionary Guards general and six Hizballah officers on Jan. 18, pulled off three feats in this attack:
One: their agents were able to cross the border unnoticed to plant roadside bombs. Two: they moved anti-tank rocket launchers right up to the order fence – undetected. And, three, astonishingly, they did not find it hard to strike and blow up the two command vehicles and inflict Israeli losses.

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This three strokes were achieved – notwithstanding IDF assurances that all the necessary security measures had been put in place and reinforced in readiness for the promised Iranian-Hizballah revenge attack.

This blog is a kind of ‘bits of this and that’—things that I’ve wanted to share with you lately—so I’ve simply put them all together!

The first ‘bit’ is that Amnesty International recently came out with a blistering report castigating Israel for ‘Operation Defensive Edge’ in Gaza last summer, accusing the IDF of war crimes. Interestingly, Amnesty noted in its report the measures the IDF took to avoid civilian casualties—but then accused Israel of committing war crimes! The Amnesty statement reported that the IDF measures used to avoid civilian casualties included “advanced phone calls, the dropping of leaflets, notices to residents to maintain a safe distance from the building, as well as knocking- on-the-roof warning missiles.” The Israeli Foreign Ministry said, “These measures are unprecedented in modern warfare and the Amnesty report explicitly states that no one was killed in the air strikes.” Despite acknowledging the steps the IDF took to protect noncombatants, the Ministry charged Amnesty then made “unfounded allegations concerning the conduct of the IDF by suggesting that Israel intentionally targeted civilians and their property.” The Foreign Ministry said, “The report also focuses on monetary losses to Palestinian civilians rather than investigating the systematic and deliberate firing of rocket and mortars at Israel’s civilian population by an internationally recognized jihadist terrorist group.”(Times of Israel)

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All of the international condemnation must be so disappointing to the IDF, as the pilots and soldiers tried in so many ways to avoid civilian casualties. As I often say, God knows the truth, and that’s what really counts. But it seems as though He isn’t the only one who knows the truth about the care that the IDF showed during its operations in Gaza! Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs General Martin Dempsey said recently, “I actually do think that Israel went to extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties.” He was speaking in New York City during a forum at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “In this kind of conflict, where you’re held to a standard that that your enemy is not held to, you’re going to be criticized for civilian casualties. The Hamas tunnels caused the IDF some significant challenges,” Dempsey said. “But they did some extraordinary things to try to limit civilian casualties including making it known that they were going to destroy a particular structure,” listing IDF measures such as ‘roof knocking’ and the dropping of leaflets as part of their attempts to protect civilian lives. “The IDF is not interested in creating civilian casualties. They’re interested in stopping the shooting of rockets and missiles out of the Gaza Strip and into Israel,” Dempsey continued. The American General recounted that an American delegation came to study their methods three months earlier to learn lessons from the conflict “to include the measures they took to prevent civilian casualties and what they did with the tunneling.”

It was in September that Washington sent a team of senior officers to learn from Israel’s tactics in ‘Operation Protective Edge.’ As Dempsey explained, “We sent a team of senior officers and non-commissioned officers over to Israel to work with the IDF to get the lessons from that participation,” referring to the group of officers as the ‘lessons learned team’ probing the extraordinary lengths the IDF took to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties. (Jerusalem Post)

A few weeks ago there was a gala fund raiser in Los Angeles for the IDF which raised a record $33 million. It was sponsored by the ‘Friends of the IDF’. Barbra Streisand, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sylvester Stallone were among the more than 1,200 guests who attended. Pamela Anderson, who also attended, shared her love for the Holy Land, saying, “Israel is magical. It is one of my favourite places to be, a mixture of old and new, arts, music and freedom. The people of Israel are interesting, aware and generous. Israel is a place that everyone must experience.” Streisand commented, “This event is one of the most inspiring and emotional evenings of the year. The soldiers of the IDF deserve our utmost respect and gratitude for all that they sacrifice to protect Israel, the only democratic state in the region.”

In a blog a while back, I commented on the news that an anonymous person in the Obama administration called Prime Minister Netanyahu a ‘chicken sh**.’So here’s another ‘bit’—I’d love to share with you what Bibi had to say when he heard about the comment! “When Israel is pressured to make concessions it’s very easy to give in. There are ovations and ceremonies on lawns and afterwards come the missiles and the tunnels. As Prime Minister, I am responsible for Israeli security. I care about the lives of every soldier and citizen. I have been on the battlefield many times. I have risked my life for the country. And I am not prepared to make concessions that will endanger our State. It must be understood that our supreme interests, with security and the unity of Jerusalem first and foremost, are not among the top concerns of those anonymous elements that are attacking us and me personally; because the attack on me was only because I am defending the State of Israel. If I did not defend the State of Israel, if I did not vigourously uphold our national and security interests, they would not attack me. And despite all the attacks against me, I will continue to defend our State. I will continue to defend the citizens of Israel. I would also like to add that I respect and appreciate our deep ties with the United States. Since the foundation of our State we have had disagreements with the US and we will yet have them. But this is not at the expense of the deep ties between our peoples and countries. And we see this again and again in the rise this year of support for the State of Israel among the American people, support that has reached an all-time high. The strategic alliance, and the alliance in values between the two countries, are continuing and will continue…” Pray for him, please!

Again in an earlier blog, I mentioned that the United States will not put “Israel” in a US passport emanating from Jerusalem. This is particularly strange since a number of years ago the US Congress—which has always been extremely pro-Israel—passed a law calling on the government to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and that the US Embassy be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. But the Presidents have refused to comply even until now. Well, guess what? Right now a family has petitioned the Supreme Court on this very matter! As a result of the petition, the US Supreme Court is weighing the constitutionality of the law that was designed to allow American citizens born in Jerusalem to have Israel listed as their birthplace on their US passports. The court appears to be divided on the case that involves the long-standing US policy that the President and not Congress has sole authority to provide American recognition of who controls Jerusalem. At least one Justice recommended that the law should be upheld and that Jerusalem, Israel, should be written on the passport with a disclaimer added on by the government saying that ‘this is not intended to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem.’

Avi and Naomi Zivotofsky are the petitioners in this case before the Supreme Court on behalf of their son, Menachem, who was born in Jerusalem. A reporter asked Menachem, “So if your passport says just Jerusalem, it would be embarrassing?”

“No,” he replied, “but there would be some people who would see just Jerusalem and think that I’m not proud to be an Israeli.”
“Dad, why is this important to you?”

“Very similarly, we’re proud we moved from America to Israel. We’re still proud Americans but we moved to Israel because we’re also proud of the State of Israel and it’s an honour to represent all of the Americans whose children are born in Jerusalem. The passports should say that they were born in Israel,” said Avi. As Netanyahu is fond of saying, Jerusalem is the eternal and undivided capital of Israel. Isn’t it crazy that we have to fight for that recognition? It is a sign indeed that we are in the end times!

A new poll was published yesterday showing that 80% of the “Palestinians” support the individual terror attacks that have tragically occurred recently in Jerusalem by “Palestinian” individuals who have stabbed or hatcheted Israelis or rammed their cars into crowded train stations. In addition, the poll showed that more than half of the “Palestinians” support a new Intifada (violent uprising against Jerusalem) and Hamas would win the presidency if new elections were held. Hamas! Can you imagine that the world thinks these people are partners for peace? Don’t be fooled. They do want piece—they want Israel piece by piece by piece until we disappear into the sea. Sorry, folks—according to the God of Israel, WE ARE HERE TO STAY!!! Halleluyah!

And then one last thing that you might not know about. Bear in mind that Israel is the size of Rhode Island and that we just spent an enormous amount of money on the Gaza war last summer to stop the rocket attacks. But as soon as Ebola broke out, Israel immediately sent experts to train the affected countries in isolation techniques. In response to urgent pleas from the UN, the World Health Organization, the US and other countries, Israel also sent more than a million shekels worth of medical equipment as well as expert personnel to fight the spread of the African Ebola epidemic. In early November, six containers were loaded onto a ship in Ashdod en route to Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea containing three mobile emergency Ebola treatment units and medical equipment. Each clinic consists of 20 beds. The clinics are fully equipped and each unit will be accompanied by an Israeli team including technicians to set up the field hospitals and to train local personnel on how to run them, along with doctors and nurses under the auspices of the Health Ministry. They will train their African counterparts to educate at-risk populations on how to prevent the spread of the disease.

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor told a Security Council in September, “Just as Israel answered the call for humanitarian aid in Haiti, Ghana and the Philippines; Israel is ready for the new challenge standing before the world and has started providing funds and medical equipment. The time for global action is now. Tens of thousands of lives and the future of West Africa hang in the balance. Every country, no matter how small, has a role to play in combating the Ebola epidemic. We are standing at a crossroad. In our generation global health and development goals that once seemed unattainable are now within our reach.”
Israel is a very, very small country, but once again we see that this little nation has a big heart.

For the residents of Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighbourhood, the day started like many others. Wrapped up snugly against the winter chill, early mornings mean a frantic scurrying along the teeming pavements as men, women and little ones make their way to work or school. And, of course, to synagogue for Schacharit or morning prayers.

About 25 worshippers were praying at the Kehilat Bnei Torah Synagogue and Yeshiva when the terrorists struck. It was all over in under 10 minutes. But those few minutes shattered the lives of many for ever.

At 7:01 two Palestinian cousins from East Jerusalem snuck into the synagogue, armed with a gun and meat cleavers. Those they came to slaughter were unarmed, had in all probability never been armed in their lives. They chose to struck when their prey would be under their prayer shawls, unaware of the ensuing danger and thus at their most vulnerable. By 7:08 the attack was over. And police had killed both terrorists. But the path of carnage they left in their wake speaks of an illogical hate and rage, poured out in a place of worship.

Four Israelis were murdered. Eight, including two policemen, were wounded. The images from the scene of the attack are heart-breaking. Some of the men died under their prayer shawls. Prayer tables hastily overturned as worshippers tried to flee the deadly attack. Tefillin scattered across the floors. Blood soaking through the pages of prayer books. A pair of spectacles trampled in the chaos. And the heaps of discarded prayer shawls gleaming white against the trails of blood. The violence is unspeakable. The intent unthinkable.

Because war should be waged against armed men. And yes, sometimes innocents are hurt in the process. But seeking out the innocents, the vulnerable, the defenceless. For the simple reason of preying on those specific traits. For such an act, humanity still has to coin a word.

As Jerusalem reels from the shock of such viciousness, the family of the two terrorists responsible for the attack, have started their own mourning process. And hundreds have joined them. The family says that the attack came out of nowhere, that they never expected the two cousins to do such a thing. They are described as “quiet youth; uninvolved in activism of politics and not members of an organization (Hamas etc.)” Perhaps tempers flared about tensions over the Temple Mount, speculates another family member. Or they simply snapped over the suicide of a Palestinian man the previous day, which the cousins believed to be a murder that Jews committed. A long list of possible reasons. Yet no blame, no sense of the slightest disapproval for what their family members did, for the carnage and heart-break they caused.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack. But not too convincingly. And his is a lone voice amongst Palestinian leadership. Islamic and left-wing groups celebrated the attack outright. And Hamas called it “a quality development in fighting the occupation. We highly value the heroism of its operatives.”

In a world that’s seemingly gone mad, where grief has once again settled over Jerusalem, I pray that the God Who is the Source of all our comfort, our consolation and encouragement will comfort Israel (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). May the God Who promises to comfort us in our every trouble, calamity and affliction, comfort you as you mourn your sons, o Zion.

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‘River of Life’ Praise song – Recorded in Jerusalem

‘River of Life’ Recorded in Jerusalem by The Jerusalem Gift Shop Founder Ian Norton – Praising YAHUAH with song after being set free from heroin addiction – from where HE took Ian from having to beg on the streets of HIS Holy City with a ‘Hungry and Homeless’ sign to giving him a NEW life – enabling him to establish this online business. All glory to HIM that sets the captive free.

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